I got greedy yesterday!
I played two tables of $5/$10 PLO and made $600 but when the games started breaking and it went down to heads-up with a weak calling station I couldn't resist staying to try and get some value out of him. I've only ever played about 5,000 hands of HU play and never this high, $2/$4 is the highest I've ever played HU, but this guy was awful.
About 100 hands later I had stacked off twice to him and ended up finishing the day with a -$394.29 loss for my second losing day in a row. I didn't feel like playing cash games anymore, so I signed up to a tournament, a $109 freezeout.
Except after the tournament started I realised it wasn't a $109 tournament it was a $109 2R1A tournament which means my $109 tournament was now going to cost me more like $409 if I wanted to stand any chance of taking it down. Ever the positive thinking poker player, despite being underrolled for a tournament of that size I decided I would give it my best shot.
Before long I found myself as a massive chip leader and breezing to the final table. Good times!
I've been in this position before though and failed to take it down, however with just 16 runners remaining when I was on a 59k stack with the average at just 33k and the closest stack at my table just 37k, I felt really confident that I could get a top three finish. I actually managed to take the whole thing down for a little bit under $5,500 and more positively my first tournament win since I started playing again on Jul 15.
Proud of my achievement I went to bed a very happy man with my account reading over $11,000 and taking my winnings for the week just a few hundred past my target of $10,000. A very productive week. I've been feeling pretty down about my MTT performances recently and feel like I've lost something. I was never massively successful, but I had a good aggressive style that would allow me to get chipped up. Recently I've felt I'd tightened up too much, I tried to play more freely yesterday and trust my instincts, it paid off.
Here are a few hands that I thought I played well and used the dynamics of the table well.
Hand #1 - Five High Bluff
PokerStars Game #48260798034: Tournament #326010761, $100+$9 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXI (1000/2000) - 2010/08/17 2:45:08 WET [2010/08/16 21:45:08 ET]
Table '326010761 7' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: white-bar (137781 in chips)
Seat 3: jvbizz (65846 in chips)
Seat 5: potamophob1a (101530 in chips)
Seat 6: Tajh PRO 07 (62131 in chips)
Seat 7: ImDaNuts (130212 in chips)
white-bar: posts the ante 250
jvbizz: posts the ante 250
potamophob1a: posts the ante 250
Tajh PRO 07: posts the ante 250
ImDaNuts: posts the ante 250
white-bar: posts small blind 1000
jvbizz: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to potamophob1a [4s 5s]
potamophob1a: raises 2223 to 4223
Tajh PRO 07: folds
ImDaNuts: folds
white-bar: calls 3223
jvbizz: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kh 8h 6d]
white-bar: checks
potamophob1a: checks
*** TURN *** [Kh 8h 6d] [Tc]
white-bar: bets 4000
potamophob1a: raises 5952 to 9952
white-bar: calls 5952
*** RIVER *** [Kh 8h 6d Tc] [8d]
white-bar: checks
potamophob1a: bets 17555
white-bar: folds
Uncalled bet (17555) returned to potamophob1a
potamophob1a collected 31600 from pot
potamophob1a: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 31600 | Rake 0
Board [Kh 8h 6d Tc 8d]
Seat 1: white-bar (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 3: jvbizz (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: potamophob1a collected (31600)
Seat 6: Tajh PRO 07 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: ImDaNuts (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Hand #2 - Not Backing Down to Three-Bets
PokerStars Game #48260902859: Tournament #326010761, $100+$9 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXI (1000/2000) - 2010/08/17 2:48:15 WET [2010/08/16 21:48:15 ET]
Table '326010761 7' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: white-bar (122856 in chips)
Seat 3: jvbizz (70766 in chips)
Seat 5: potamophob1a (115205 in chips)
Seat 6: Tajh PRO 07 (74331 in chips)
Seat 7: ImDaNuts (114342 in chips)
white-bar: posts the ante 250
jvbizz: posts the ante 250
potamophob1a: posts the ante 250
Tajh PRO 07: posts the ante 250
ImDaNuts: posts the ante 250
Tajh PRO 07: posts small blind 1000
ImDaNuts: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to potamophob1a [Th Qs]
white-bar: folds
jvbizz: folds
potamophob1a: raises 2333 to 4333
Tajh PRO 07: calls 3333
ImDaNuts: raises 7667 to 12000
potamophob1a: raises 17455 to 29455
Tajh PRO 07: folds
ImDaNuts: folds
Uncalled bet (17455) returned to potamophob1a
potamophob1a collected 29583 from pot
potamophob1a: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 29583 | Rake 0
Seat 1: white-bar folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: jvbizz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: potamophob1a (button) collected (29583)
Seat 6: Tajh PRO 07 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: ImDaNuts (big blind) folded before Flop
Both of those hands are from the final table, the reason I picked them is I felt I used the table dynamics well and made good use of my chips. Both hands are weak, QT off-sweet is trash to a call and three-bet and five-high, well, it's five-high. But I put pressure on smaller stacks and made them pay for putting chips into the pot out of position and without hands. That's certainly important for being successful and tournaments.
Hopefully this new mix of my current tight play and my previous hyper-aggressive play will start to see a few more returns. I now have a new goal, at least for the next week. I'm going to try and take down two more tournaments in the next week on Full Tilt and PartyPoker so that I can achieve a Triple Crown. There's no reward, it's more for the props to be honest, just to say I'm a PocketFives.com Triple Crown winner.
That would make me feel good.
Daily Bankroll Update: $4,779.16
Bankroll Update for the Week: $10,672.61
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